The Owls are busy in the summer transfer market so far

Billy Mitchell became Sheffield Wednesday’s ninth summer signing at the weekend.

The central midfielder, 25, has joined on a free transfer from Millwall on a three-year deal. To get some expert insight into Mitchell, we spoke to journalist William Scott, of NewsAtDen, to find out more about him.

WHAT TYPE OF PLAYER IS HE?

“I think it's a huge coup for for Wednesday. He was Alex Neil’s sort of first choice when he was fit pretty much throughout the 18 months they were both there at the same time. He's really hardworking, really diligent, just loves flying around, getting stuck in and winning the ball back. He's good on the ball as well. He can help set the tempo of a game.

“He's never going to be featuring super heavily in the goals and assist charts, it's not really his game. He is an all-action midfielder who just puts himself about. Really intelligent as well. I'm sure you'll come to learn that when you speak to him and do interviews. The way he thinks about the game, the way he talks. He's very articulate. He was a local lad as well, so the fans all loved him. It was a blow when he left. It was probably expected, given how contract negotiations were proceeding, but yeah, it was disappointing to see him go.”

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT HIM?

“He's not massively physical. He’s not a huge lad who's going to come in and thunder into someone. He's not particularly tall. But it's all about his intelligent reading of the game and knowing when to put the tackle in and when to occupy the space. He's going to sit a bit deeper. Millwall would press quite high, and Mitchell would drop off a bit more and cover the space. He'd be the one who dropped between the centre-backs, recycle the ball and be trusted to lead the build up.

“He'll become a very important player. I'd imagine they'll trust him with a lot of responsibilities early on in terms of building up from the back and covering the space. He’s going to definitely be sitting more than he is heading into the opposition's box but he does a lot of really useful things.”

WHAT’S THE REACTION TO HIM LEAVING BEEN LIKE?

“It's been a bit mixed. Obviously there's a lot of disappointment he left. He had a lot of cheerleaders. I think the issue with Billy, why it was it wasn't as negative as you might expect, is he's had his injury issues. He's been injured for large parts of the past two seasons. It's been a while since he's had a fully fit season. There's just always this sense that he's going to break down. So I think there's an element of that.

“I think there's just also how the contract negotiations went down. You know, the club made him a lot of offers throughout the season. I don't think there's any sort of resentment or negativity, but it's not an overwhelming outpouring of negativity at the club. It's disappointing, but I think there's also just a lot of good luck.”

WHAT SORT OF INJURIES DOES HE GET?

“I'd have to go over his injury record, but off the top of my head, it seems to be a lot of muscle injuries. Accumulation of games, I think. It was a bit harsh on him because at one point last season Millwall had all eight central midfielders out. So there was a lot of onus on him to have to play a lot of games, and his body sort of broke down. So it seems to be a lot of muscle injuries. Some of those injuries were freak. I'm not a physio, but he's had his problems there.”

WILL HE BE ONE OF THE BETTER PLAYERS IN LEAGUE ONE?

“Yeah, he was a regular starter on a team that finished third in the Championship. I think there's a real surprise, no disrespect to Wednesday, that he went down to League One. Watford and MLS clubs were supposedly in for him. He must really believe in that project at Wednesday, a big football club. I think he's too good for that level.”

DO YOU KNOW MUCH ABOUT HIM AS A PERSON?

“He's really sharp. Very friendly to chat to. They had a really positive dressing room environment last season and he was a huge part of it. He's been there since 2019 and he's well-liked and well-loved. The fans loved him as well. He's just going to be a really positive influence. He's just a really nice bloke. I imagine they will love him at Wednesday. “

DO YOU THINK HE COULD HE PARTNER BARRY BANNAN IN MIDFIELD?

“I'd imagine the playing styles would dovetail quite nicely in terms of Billy's quite good at making those progressive passes. But we didn’t really get to see that at Millwall, they didn’t play much together.”